Alexandra Kjeld is an Environmental Engineer, M.Sc., and environmental consultant at EFLA Consulting Engineers. She has extensive experience in the field of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and carbon footprint calculations, including analyses for hydropower, wind and geothermal electricity generation and the electricity transmission system in Iceland. Other professional work includes EIAs, landfill gas research, and carbon footprint calculations for a range of products, services, companies and municipalities in Iceland and in Norway.

ABSTRACT:

Due to the use of low carbon renewable energy sources in Iceland, carbon footprint calculations for Icelandic buildings have highlighted the role of embodied carbon. Impacts of electricity use and heating throughout a building‘s operational life are nevertheless significant, particularly for energy-intensive service buildings. While methods such as CCS can have a large mitigating impact when utilising high temperature geothermal fields, LCA research is needed to identify emission sources and mitigating potential in the utilisation of low temperature geothermal areas.